NEWSLETTER

OUR MISSION: To protect and preserve our natural
heritage and help build an environmental culture while developing a
Botanical Garden dedicated to Mexican flora and providing an oasis of
peace and tranquility for all.

Please tell your friends and prospective
members/supporters how to access the newsletter and help broaden the
base of support for the Botanical Garden.

Whoever has visited El Charco during the month of September can't forget the profusion and diversity of the aromatic and multicolored flowers on the green meadows during the rainy season.†Even if rains have been scarce and late this year, flowers have started sprouting from the trees and shrubs and the low ones line the paths like carpets of lilac, white, yellow, red, and orange, along the sides of the canyon and the presa and generally throughout all of El Charco.

Along with the flowers is a large diversity of pollinating insects such as butterflies rivaling the flowers in color. In this month when the center of town is bustling with festivals and celebrations, a morning escape to El Charco is highly recommended – or a late afternoon walk to admire, among other things, the magnificent sunset over San Miguel, the Rio Laja valley and the mountains of Guanajuato.† A spectacular month for flowers, insects, sunsets and –we crave for-- water cascading over the dam….

The best season also to use The Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers of San Miguel de Allende, by Richard Cretcher --on sale at the Botanical Garden's giftshop.

Dra. Arvigo will share with us medicinal uses of local plants from fields, gardens and streets of San Miguel. There will be many surprises as you learn about plants you pass everyday on your way downtown or when walking through the neighborhoods. Dr. Rosita has just completed a three month survey with local herbalists, so she will have a lot of new information to share.† Whether you've heard her before or not, this will be fascinating. With a vast knowledge of herbs due to over 20 years of research in the field and labs, Dr. Arvigo is a practices healing with plants, especially as applied in the Mayan culture, and has taught these techniques for over 10 years.

Ariel Guzik, Mexican artist and inventor, is founder of the Laboratory for Research in Resonance and Expression of Nature (Laboratorio de Investigacion en Resonancia y Expresion de la Naturaleza A.C.) whose mission is the creation of an empathetic language, universal and direct, between human beings and their environment, looking to wake up in the collective consciousness a profound emotional understanding of nature. The artistic projects of this Lab give free exercise to the human spirit that looks to resolve enigmas and mysteries through sensation and emotion. To this end, Ariel Guzik has constructed a family of instruments which are like sculptures, capable of relating through links with energy and vibrations of various natural phenomenon. Resonance, magnetism and natural harmonic intervals are the fundamentals of this technology.

The Plasmath Lute is a chord instrument based on traditional lute techniques. Its nucleus is formed of chords and precious woods that vibrate through the capture of signals coming from living things. This provokes resonance in the chords and wood of the instrument, generating songs.

Concert for Plants is an installation in which a plant is connected by small electrodes to the Lute and the music is directed to a public composed of other plants. In this case, the lead plant is a cactus from the desert of San Luis Potosi. The plants participating as the audience come from various regions of the country, as ambassadors. All of the plants live in the Conservatory of Mexican Plants and are part of the botanical collection of El Charco del Ingenio.

During the three weeks that this acoustic installation will be here, we will be announcing various events and experiments. Stay tuned.

AUTUMN EQUINOX: Friday September 23

A CELEBRATION IN TWO STEPS:

SENSORY GARDEN: Inauguration:

Friday September 23 | 12:30 p.m.
Recognition of Susan Porter Smith and The Save the Laja Foundation, sponsors of this new, interactive space.

Thanks to the most generous economic support of this foundation, as well as the ideas and enthusiasm of its director, Betsy January, it has been possible to create a whole new section in the Botanical Garden, which is already a great point of attraction for children, youth, families and all visitors. Conceived as a playful and interactive facility, this new Garden has different modules which bring us closer to the natural world through games and sensory perception. Through the telescope we can discover the landscapes of the reservoir or we can open our olfactory senses wandering through the scented garden. We can get close to the constant and vibrant activity of birds and insects pollinating flowering plants, in the Sunken Garden with its springs of moving water or note the circumvolutions of the Earth around the Sun, with its equinoxes and solstices in the Solar Observatory.

The Sensory Garden has a huge underground cistern that captures rain throughout the year and from which the new areas are watered for the enjoyment and knowledge of the natural world.

THE SOLAR OBSERVATORY
| Measuring of the Equinox

Thursday, September 23 | 1:30pm
With the participation of Phyllis Pitluga, Astronomer Emeritus of the Planetarium of Chicago and Guillermo Veytia, supervisor of this earth machine.

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES:

EL CHARCO IN THE CERVANTINO FESTIVALOctober, 2011

Along with all the numerous artistic activities in this Festival, each year there is a special environmental theme. This year, with San Miguel de Allende as a secondary venue for the Festival, the Botanical Garden has been invited to participate using the theme of water as an endangered natural resource. Guided visits will take place at the Garden every Saturday and Sunday during the Festival from 10a.m to noon under the guidance of the directiors of El Charco. The cost will be 80p/person and there will be public transportation available to and from the Garden. For more information and to reserve, consult the Festival's program.

LAND ART IN THE CHARCO | CALLING ALL ARTISTS

Proposal deadline: Friday, October 7

Various artists have worked in this media, Land Art, such as Robert Smithson, Andy Goldsworthy, Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Chris Drury, Walter Mason, Sebastian Silva, Jim Denevan, Dennis Oppenheim, to name a few.† Places that are protected, conserved, have harmony and peace, such as the Botanical Garden and Reserve of El Charco del Ingenio inspire artists to use them as a perfect canvass – once again - in this case 11 projects of Land Art which will be integrated and contribute to the beauty of San Miguel.
We invite, for the second year, artists and all creative people to walk, sit, smell, get to know the canyon, reservoir, paths of El Charco to be inspired and to join us in this experience.

Purpuse: Use the landscape of El Charco as a background an artistic creation in harmony with the natural surroundings of the Reserve. That is, artistically alter the land using natural materials of the region that integrates both visually and environmentally without damaging the space.
Eleven projects will be selected for presentation on November 19th, 2011.

Thanks to the economic support of SEMARNAT, work continues to restore the north side of the Botanical Garden, where the vegetation was seriously damaged by last May's fire. We have purchased equipment and have been able to hire a team of 12 temporary workers to build firewalls and a road wide enough for vehicles which will help prevent and control fires in the future.

Our staff biologist, Urani Carillo, is actually leading a study of the affected area, which will be of the utmost scientific interest on the patterns of spontaneous regeneration of flora and fauna after disaster of this magnitude.

ACTIVITIES OF THIS PAST MONTH OF AUGUST

Some images:

Festival de títeres de San Miguel de Allende

the 2nd Festival del nopaly la tuna

THANK YOU's

To our dear friend and extraordinary musician, Jimena Gimenez Cacho for a splendid solo violoncello recital which she offered in the Conservatory of Mexican Plants as a benefit for the Garden. Because of the magnificent music and a setting full of plant life, the audience had an unforgettable experience.

SPENCER TUNICK in El Charco del Ingenio

On August 3rd there was a photo session in the Botanical Garden with this unusual artist, well known for his pictures of naked people in various urban and natural settings throughout the world. The photos were taken in the canyon section of El Charco. More than 200 volunteers – Mexicans, foreigners, men and women, old and young – responded to the artist's call and gleefully disrobed, despite a sudden squall that arose, to create with their bodies the forms that Tunik enjoys photographing and distributing. This installation "Peace, Body and Rock", was made especially for TED San Miguel 2011.

September 1st, this famous rock group from Guadalajara taped their video clip from their album, Drama and Light, and launched a press conference at the Four Winds Plaza. We thank Mana· for having chosen the Garden as the site for this event –and also for the donation given to the conservation project.

The mountain range, Los Picachos, south of San Miguel, still has in its upper parts a forest of oak trees. There are some that stand out for their size, form and longevity. Some have survived the ax and machete and inclement weather. Others have already disappeared. This is the case of an old, wide oak tree that crowned one of the points of Los Picachos and that people called Palo Huerfano (orphan tree). There are only a few twisted trunks after being hit by lightening during a storm many years ago. It is nevertheless a venerated remain, with a cross still planted at its feet, and a little altar with recent offerings, still visited annually by people from surrounding communities. We don't know if it was ever photographed. However, its imposing image was captured in oil painting by a local artist, Emilio Gonzalez --a founder of the Botanical Garden. He saw on a night of a full moon and then painted it surrounded by shades and colors. And he did it before this mighty oak became only a memory.

"Palo Huérfano", Emilio González, Oil on canvas

NEW PASSES and CHANGE IN THE MEMBERSHIP FEE

The increasing diversity of activities and programs in El Charco has resulted in an increase in the number and type of visitors interested in nature, research, art, recreation and history. Considering the different needs and opportunities, especially as regards the local population, the Botanical Garden will from now on issue Special Passes, which permit multiple entries without committing to the purchase of an annual membership.
Annual membership: due to the increasing needs and improvements in the Botanical Garden, we feel it is time to increase the annual membership by $100 pesos. We feel this increase is fair and not onerous, given the benefits that members receive.
Thus the entrance categories and prices will be as follows:

Monthly pass: $180 pesos, which is equivalent to $6 pesos per day to enter the Botanical Garden.

Three-month pass: $300 pesos, which is equivalent to $3.3 pesos per day to enter the Botanical Garden

Six-month pass: $450 pesos, which is equivalent to $2.5 pesos per day to enter the Botancial Garden.

Annual membership: $700 pesos, which is equivalent to $2 pesos per day, plus 2 free admittances for guests and discounts for various activities and events.

We remind you that the passes and memberships are personal and non-transferable. In order to enter the Garden, the visitor should bring his/her pass or membership card.

Note: the single-day entrance fee ($40 pesos) will still be available for occasional visitors.

UPDATING OUR WEBSITE

As previously announced, we have changed the look of El Charco's web page with the help of designer, Jacobo Gonzalez, giving us an improved image and updated information. It is much easier to navigate the site and we welcome your comments. We also would like to recognize and thank Holly Yasui for the enormous effort and support she has given us over so many years with the initial design and updates. We consider the website an essential tool in our conservation work. We hope you enjoy it.

We invite everyone to this open celebration that has been taking place for many years during the full moon cycle at the Four Winds Plaza in the Botanical Garden.

We celebrate the Full Moon Ceremony to come back into balance with nature on earth. Come and enthusiastically participate and dedicate your intention and energies at the Plaza of the Four Winds. Bonfire, incense, chanting, drumming included. Bring flutes, cymbals, a drum or any other instrument if you want.

It's worth arriving a little early to admire the setting of the sun and the appearance of the moon over the mountains. You may want to bring a coat for cool evenings. Children welcome. Any questions, call Alicia Mayo at 152 .0376.

This sweat-lodge steam bath, of ritual and healing character, takes place under the direction of an experienced temazcal leader in the ruins of the hacienda located in the Botanical Garden on the far side of the reservoir.
The combination of heat, humidity and fragrant herbs provides a purifying experience for the body and spirit. Its benefits are multiple: it activates circulation, increases the body's defenses, eliminates pains, decreases uric acid, relaxes the muscles, regulates the nervous system, stimulates respiration and is excellent for losing weight.

The walks are for birders of all levels. They begin at 9:00 am and last about 2 1/2 hours. No reservations needed, and feel free to leave the walk at any time. Please bring binoculars, wear comfortable walking shoes and a hat, and bring water. Your guide will meet you after you pass through the Reception area of the Botanical Garden

VISIT THE GIFT SHOP AND CAFE

Purchases in the shop and cafÈ not only benefit the Botanical Garden but also the small producers we promote. This month we are featuring original incense burners made of black clay and original designs of prehispanic whistles. Come and try our delicious homemade pizzas in the CafÈ. We thank you in advance for your support.